[JURIST] A senior Thai Justice Ministry official said Thursday that Thailand will renew a probe into the anti-drug campaign of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] during which close to 2,500 people were killed. Thaksin's war on drugs [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] began in 2003 and gained
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[JURIST] The US Senate voted 83-14 [roll call] in favor of a new ethics bill [S 230 text] that will require congressmen and other officials to make public additional information about money involving personal projects and lobbies. The legislation also bans gifts from lobbies to lawmakers, and requires former senators
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[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] held [opinion, PDF] Thursday that insurance policies held by many victims of Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive] did not cover flood damage caused by the storm. Writing for a three-judge panel, Judge Carolyn King said that flood damage
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[JURIST] Chinese Communist Party discipline commission spokesman Gan Yisheng said Thursday that China's use of capital punishment in political and economic corruption cases is appropriate and effective. Gan justified the punishment saying that it had "been endorsed by the Chinese people and also recognized by the international community." In July,
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[JURIST] The Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice [official website, in Spanish] Wednesday suspended an order issued by the government's telecommunication commission requiring Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) [media website, in Spanish] to register as a "national audiovisual production service" or face shutdown after agreeing to hear a case on whether cable
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[JURIST] The US House Judiciary Committee [official website] approved new legislation [HR 2102 materials] on Wednesday shielding reporters from being compelled to disclose confidential sources. Under the bill, journalists could not be forced by prosecutors to reveal their informants unless a court determined that the public interest in disclosure outweighed
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[JURIST] China's Shanxi province High People's Court announced the conviction of 31 defendants in 18 separate trials for their involvement in the use of slave labor at various brick kilns in the Shanxi and Henan provinces Thursday. The defendants were sentenced to between two to five-years in prison. Four government
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[JURIST] The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [court rules, PDF; official backgrounder] restricted the government's monitoring of e-mail and telephone conversations of suspected terrorists in foreign countries in a ruling publicly disclosed Thursday. According to US House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH) [official website], the ruling limits the ability
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[JURIST] White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove [official profile] refused to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday during the committee's seventh hearing [witness list] on the Justice Department's firing of US Attorneys [JURIST news archive]. Following President Bush's orders that White House staff not
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[JURIST] UK Conservative Party leader William J. Hague [official website] repeated his earlier call for a general referendum [press release] on the proposed EU Reform Treaty [PDF text; EU materials] during an interview with BBC Radio 4 Thursday, saying that the reform treaty is essentially the same [recorded audio, RAM]
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[JURIST] The High Court of Australia [official website] upheld an interim control order against Joseph Terrence Thomas [advocacy website] Thursday, accepting the government's argument [JURIST report] and ruling that the control order provision of a controversial anti-terror law [ANS backgrounder] is constitutional because it is supported by the government's "defense
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[JURIST] US District Judge Amy St. Eve [official profile] ruled in Chicago Wednesday that Canadian-born financier and former media mogul Conrad Black [JURIST news archive] may stay out on bail until his November 30 sentencing but denied a request to allow him to return to his home in Toronto. During
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[JURIST] The Congress of Guatemala [official website, in Spanish] voted to create the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) Wednesday, establishing an independent body [press release, in Spanish] to investigate organized crime and official corruption. The CICIG, which will be funded by voluntary international contributions, will be given independent
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[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile; JURIST news archive] sent a letter [PDF text] to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday in response to a request that Gonzales clarify testimony [transcript] provided last week. Gonzales maintained that his testimony was truthful and that apparent contradictions stemmed
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